Demand for ethanol in France jumped to record levels in 2019, reaching roughly 1.13 to 1.15 billion litres.

Statistics by French bioethanol association SNPAA show that sales of E85, or Superethanol, jumped by 85% year-on-year to 340 million liters.

E10 sales, meanwhile, reached 5 billion liters with a market share approaching 50%. SNPAA explained that the growing demand for ethanol blends was due to a drop in diesel demand as petrol cars are now more popular in France.

The record ethanol sales in France for the whole year are equal to less than half of the average monthly sales in one of the biggest markets for the biofuel -- Brazil. The country’s consumption of ethanol reached a new record of 32.8 billion litres last year, a 10.5% increase from 2018, local sugarcane industry association Unica said.

On average, Brazil consumed 2.74 billion litres of ethanol every 30 days.

Provided by Renewables Now exclusively for Essentica.